Cheshunt, United Kingdom

By the end of the Anglo-Saxon era, Cheshunt was a manor. Immediately before the Norman Conquest of 1066, it was owned by someone called Edeva the Fair. The Domesday Book of 1086 records the manor as Cestrehunt in the Hertford Hundred of Hertfordshire. By then, it was owned by Alan Rufus, a Breton nobleman who had been granted extensive estates across England in the years following the Battle of Hastings. The Domesday Book recorded a total of 78 households in the manor, which also had a mill and extensive woodland.

A priest is recorded in the Domesday Book, suggesting Cheshunt was also a parish by that time. Cheshunt's parish church, dedicated to St Mary, was built between 1418 and 1448, replacing an earlier church on the site. By the late 12th century, Cheshunt also had a Benedictine convent known as Cheshunt Nunnery, which survived until the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s.

Cheshunt had comprised a single manor at the time of the Domesday Book. In medieval times it had a moated manor house, the site of which is now known as Half Moat Manor. It stood on the east side of Dark Lane (the former Ermine Street), and to the west of the parish church.

The manor of Cheshunt gradually fragmented into smaller manors or estates. In the south of the parish, Theobalds had become a separate manor by 1441. It was acquired by William Cecil in 1564. He had the house there rebuilt shortly afterwards. The new building was known as Theobalds Palace. Cecil became Lord Burghley in 1571 and was a major political figure of the time. Elizabeth I visited Theobalds frequently. Elizabeth had also visited Cheshunt prior to her accession to the throne, staying in the household of Anthony Denny in 1548.

The Cecil family gave Theobalds Palace to James I in 1607 in exchange for Hatfield House. James found Theobalds a good location for sport and spent significant time there. He died at Theobalds in 1625. Much of the palace was demolished in 1650 following the English Civil War. The remainder of the palace was demolished in 1765, following the construction of Theobalds House on a new site within the Theobalds estate, about a mile to the west of the palace. The site of the palace was eventually donated to the local council in 1919 to become a public park called Cedars Park.

The Temple Bar gateway, which had been completed in 1672 to mark the western entrance of the City of London, was dismantled in 1878. It was subsequently re-erected in Theobalds Park in the 1880s. It was dismantled again and returned to London in 2004, where it was re-erected on a new site in Paternoster Square, adjacent to St Paul's Cathedral.

By 1474, a manor called Andrews had also been created at Cheshunt. Cheshunt Great House was built in the 15th century as its manor house, likely on the site of an earlier building as its vaults were said to date from the 13th century. In 1519, the Great House came into the possession of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, chief adviser to Henry VIII. The Great House was destroyed in a fire in 1965.

Cheshunt Park was another estate created from part of the ancient manor of Cheshunt. There is mention of a park belonging to the manor from as early as 1339. By the 16th century, Cheshunt Park had become a separate estate. In 1795, a mansion called Brantyngeshaye was built at Cheshunt Park for its owner, Oliver Cromwell, who was great-grandson of the Oliver Cromwell who had ruled England in the 1650s following the English Civil War. The house subsequently also became known as Cheshunt Park after the park in which it stood. The house was demolished in 1970.

In the early 19th century, the settlement of Cheshunt was still described as a village. The settlement had two main centres; the ancient core of the village along the street called Churchgate near the parish church, and a roadside settlement which had grown up along High Street and Turners Hill about 0.6 miles (1 km) to the east, to take advantage of passing trade along that main road.

Dewhurst School on Churchgate was founded in 1640 by Robert Dewhurst. Now called Dewhurst St Mary's School, it is Cheshunt's oldest school.

The Cheshunt Railway, an experimental overhead monorail, was opened in 1825. It was designed by engineer Henry Robinson Palmer, and was primarily built to carry materials from the brickworks of a Mr Gibbs near Gews Corner to a wharf on the River Lea. It also carried passengers, making it the world's first passenger monorail. The design featured an overhead track with horse-drawn carriages suspended below, with hinged rail sections to accommodate road crossings. No trace of the monorail survives.